West Bengal Civil Service (EXE.) (WBCS ) is the official civil service examination conducted by the Public Service Commission of the state of West Bengal. The WBPCS examination is commonly held one time a year. The Commission releases the official notification regarding the examination and other compliance details in accordance with the schedule the examination is finalized. The WBPSC 2021 Exam is also notified on the official website of WBPSC.
This exam is also referred to as WBCS and WBPSC Exam.
Qualifying Rounds
The Exam is broadly divided into three qualifying rounds:
Though there are three sets of qualifying rounds except one single application is the only requirement, though the admit cards for all three would be different which has to be downloaded separately each time you qualify for each progressing round.
Candidates who clear the Preliminary exam will appear for the Mains examination thereafter for the Personality test round. This set of exams will last at least one and half years long and there are periodic intervals in between which can be utilized by the candidates for preparations.
| Abbreviation | WBCS (EXE.) Exam 2021 |
| Type | State Autonomous Recruitment Body |
| Purpose | Qualifying Exam for Group A, B, C, D service category |
| Location | West Bengal |
| Chairman | Shri Debashis Bose, IAS (Retd.) |
The Commission conducts the annual exam for those candidates who meet the eligibility criteria for recruitment to the Administrative Depts. Under West Bengal Govt. The notification can be looked upon on the official website of the WBPSC.
This exam shall be recognized as a combined competitive exam (CCE) for all four groups of service. The candidates can apply for more than one group parallel and there shall be no separate applications for the same but a single application with provisions to indicate choice of groups.
| CATEGORY | EXAM FEE | SERVICE CHARGES |
| Unreserved | 210/- | + Rupees 5 as service charge for online payment through debit/credit card.
Or + Rupees 5 as service charge for net banking. Or + Rupees 20 as service charge for payment off-line mode. + GST as applicable govt. duty. |
| SC/ST candidates of West Bengal or PwD candidates with 40% above disability. | No fees apply. | No service charges are applicable. |
| Backward Classes of West Bengal and SC/ST/BC candidates of other States. | 210/- | + Rupees 5 as service charge for online payment through debit/credit card.
Or + Rupees 5 as service charge for net banking. Or +Rs 20 as service charge for payment off-line mode. + GST as applicable govt. duty. |
The official notification for the WBPSC Exam 2021 – Preliminary was originally released on 18th December 2020. Usually every year the notification is made public in the month of November every year for the succeeding year examination, but owing to the existing pandemic situations and unpredictable policies of state governments regarding lockdown in the country, there has been a default in practice.
The notification contains details such as stages of exams, type of exams, examination process, tentative dates of examination, pay scales of all the four groups namely A, B, C, and D services are specified, reservation criteria’s, candidature qualifications, age limit, fee, etc. are stated.
Below is the tabular view of important notification details on WBPSC Exam 2021.
| EVENTS | NOTIFIED DATE |
| WBCS (EXE.) Exam 2021- Preliminary- Notification | 18th Dec 2020 |
| Online Application Portal Access Date | 24th Dec 2020 |
| Deadline for Submitting Applications | 15th Jan 2021
(extended date 20th January 2021) |
| Deadline for payment of fees | 15th Jan 2021
(extended date 20th January 2021) |
| Original Tentative Date notified | 21st Mar 2021 |
| Revised Date | 22nd Aug 2021 |
| Release of Admit Cards | 6th Aug 2021 |
| EVENTS | NOTIFIED DATE |
| WBPSC Exam 2020- Notification | 04th Nov 2019 |
| WBPSC Exam 2020- Preliminary Exam Date | 09th Feb 2020 |
| WBPSC Exam 2020- Mains-originally Scheduled Date | 24 Apr 2021- 28 Apr 2021 |
| Revised Date | 17th, 18th,19th,21st May 2021 |
| Newly Revised Date | 27th, 28th,29th,31st Aug 2021 |
| Release of Admit Cards | 16th Aug 2021 |
The WBPSC exam is conducted once a year and the notification is as seen in preceding years released in the month of November, but recently for the preliminary exam 2021 of WBPSC the notification was out in public on 18th December 2020 and the Exam was scheduled tentatively for 21st March 2021. But owing to the corona pandemic that has led to unannounced state restrictions and frequent altercations of lockdown norms, the exam kept on postponing. The state assembly elections were also one of the reasons that the exam got postponed in the month of May 2021. In the meantime, the Commission has notified the newly revised dates both for the WBPSC 2021 Preliminary Exam and WBPSC (EXE.) 2020 – Mains Exam.
Below are the details regarding the revised date for exams as per recent official notification on the Public Service Commission, West Bengal.
| EXAM NAME | DATE |
| WBCS (EXE.) Exam 2021- Preliminary- Initial Date Notified | 07th Feb 2021 |
| Revised Date | 21st Mar 2021, 30th May 2021 |
| New Scheduled Date | 22nd Aug 2021 |
| EXAM NAME | DATE |
| WBCS (EXE.) Exam 2020- Mains- Initial Date Notified | 24th April 2021 – 28th April 2021 |
| Revised Date | 17th,18th,19th, 21st May 2021 |
| New Scheduled Date | 27th, 28th,29th, 31st Aug 2021 |
The prescribed fees for the WBPSC Exam are Rupees 210 (two hundred and ten) only which shall have an addition of applicable service charges as well. Below is a detailed description of Note: No claim for refund of application fees once submitted shall be entertained or processed nor shall it be held to be processed for any other exam.
Eligibility in terms of educational qualifications and age criteria both should be satisfied.
General age criteria for all the four groups are stated below:
| Group | Minimum Age | Maximum Age | Description |
| ‘A’ & ‘C’ | 21 years | 36 years | Born between 2nd January 1985 and 1st January 2000 |
| ‘B’ | 20 years | 36 years | Born between 2nd January 1985 and 1st January 2001 |
| ‘D’ | 21 years | 39 years | Born between 2nd January 1982 and 1st January 2000 |
Note: Those candidates whose birth date falls between 1st Jan 2000 and 1st Jan 2001 i.e those who are of 20-21 years of age as of 1st Jan 2021 can apply for group ‘B’ only.
However, there is age relaxation for the SC/ST candidates of West Bengal which shall be by 5 years and Backward Class candidates of West Bengal shall have 3 years relaxation from the original stipulation of the age limit.
The SC/ST/BC candidates from other states shall be considered equal to candidates from the general category.
In the case of PwD candidates, the age relaxation extended is up to 45 years of their age.
Other than the above-mentioned eligibility stipulations the following conditions must also be satisfied.
The vacancies for the WBCS (Exe.) Preliminary Examination 2021 is yet to be notified, however the examination date and admit card details are out in the public forum. The vacancy list will be notified in the coming days when the administrative departments notify their respective vacancies, so the candidates should keep a close watch on the official website of the WBPSC
Posts/services- WBPSC (EXE.) Exam 2021
The posts available in the Administrative Departments of the West Bengal Government are stated below.
| GROUP‘A’ | 1. W.B Civil Service (Exe.)
2. Asst. Comm. of Rev. in the integrated W.B Revenue Service 3. W.B Co-op Service 4. W.B Labour Service 5. W.B Food & Supplies Service 6. W.B Employment Service |
| GROUP‘B’ | W .B Police Service |
|
GROUP‘C’ |
1. Supt, Dist. Correctional Home / Dpty Supt, Central Correctional Home
2. Jt. Block Dev. OFF 3. Dpty. Asst. Dir. of Consumer Affairs and Fair Biz. Practices 4. W.B Jr. Social Welfare Svc 5. W.B Subor. Land Rev. Svc, Grd-I 6. Asst. Commercial Tax Officer 7. Jt. Regstr (W.B State Consumer Disputes Redressal Comm. under the Consumer Aff. Dept., Govt. of W.B) 8. Asst. Canal Rev. OFF (Irrigation) 9. Chf. Controller of Correctional Svc. |
| GROUP’D’ | 1. Insp. of Co-op. Societies
2. Panchayat Dev. OFF. under the Panchayat and Rural Dev. Dept. 3. Rehab. OFF. under the Refugee Relief and Rehab. Dept. |
The remuneration and other allowances vary according to each post in each group and they are clearly stated in the official notification which is released by the Commission. Though the posts in each group remain mostly the same every year, however, the vacancies created may only be known when the respective departments notify the same.
Below the posts along with the remuneration and allowance details can be viewed.
|
WEST BENGAL PSC 2021 (WBPSC 2021) |
||
| GROUP NAME | POST DESCRIPTION | PAYSCALE + ALLOWANCE |
|
Group ‘A’ |
1. W.B Civil Service (Exe.)
2. Asst. Comm. of Rev. in the integrated W.B Revenue Service 3. W.B Co-op Service 4. W.B Labour Service 5. W.B Food & Supplies Service 6. W.B Employment Service |
(56,100 – 1, 44,300) + Allowance |
| Group ‘B’ | W .B Police Service | (56,100 – 1, 44,300) + ALL. |
| Group ‘C’ | 1. Supt, Dist. Correctional Home / Dpty Supt, Central Correctional Home
2. Jt. Block Dev. OFF 3. Dpty. Asst. Dir. of Consumer Affairs and Fair Biz. Practices 4. W.B Jr. Social Welfare Svc 5. W.B Subor. Land Rev. Svc, Grd-I 6. Asst. Commercial Tax Officer 7. Jt. Regstr (W.B State Consumer Disputes Redressal Comm. under the Consumer Aff. Dept., Govt. of W.B)
8. Asst. Canal Rev. OFF (Irrigation) 9. Chf. Controller of Correctional Svc. |
(42,600 – 1, 09,800) + ALL.
(39,900 – 1, 02,800) + Allowance
(35,800 – 92,100) + Allowance |
| Group‘D’ | 1. Insp. of Co-op. Societies
2. Panchayat Dev. OFF. under the Panchayat and Rural Dev. Dept. 3. Rehab. OFF. under the Refugee Relief and Rehab. Dept. |
(32,100-82,900) + Stipulated allowances.
|
The brief syllabus on all the three rounds of examination has been discussed below:
The preliminary round of examination will have questions on the following topics.
| S.No. | DESCRIPTION OF TOPICS | LANGUAGE |
| 1. | Current Events (National & International Importance) |
Bengali & English |
| 2. | English Composition | |
| 3. | Geography of India with focus on West Bengal | |
| 4. | General Mental Ability | |
| 5. | General Science | |
| 6. | History of India | |
| 7. | Indian National Movement | |
| 8. | Indian Polity and Economy |
The Mains examination has 6 compulsory papers and two optional subject papers. The details are stated below:
| S.No. | PAPER HEADS | DESCRIPTION |
| 1. | Arithmetic and Test of Reasoning.
|
– |
| 2. | English | Composition & Translation from Santali/Nepali/Urdu/Hindi/ Bengali to English, Report Drafting (up to 200 words)/ Letter writing (150 words), Précis Writing. |
| 3. | General Studies-I | The History of India with the significance of National Movement and Indian Geographical structure with prominence to West Bengal. |
| 4. | General Studies-II | Current Affairs, Environment, General Knowledge, Science, Scientific & Technological advancement. |
| 5. | Santali/Nepali/Urdu/Hindi/ Bengali | Précis Writing, Composition and Translation from English to Bengali/Hindi/Urdu/Nepali/Santali, Letter writing (up to 150 words) / Drafting of Report (200 words), |
| 6. | The Constitution of India (along with Indian Economy, role and functioning of the RBI.
|
– |
There will be two papers from optional subjects chosen by the candidate from the choices given in Appendix-I in official notification.
The interview is on the generic tastes and interests of the candidates. It is for analyzing the personality traits and general interest of the candidate.
The Prelims Exams only have Paper I which shall be on General topics. As opposed to the Mains Examination there are no subjective type of questions but the only objective types of questions which form 200 questions in total which are objective in nature. These are multiple-choice questions and each question will carry one mark each and that makes it to a total of 200 marks in total.
The examination is for two and half hours. Since there is only a single paper to attempt for the preliminary round there is no break in between and it shall be two and half hours at a stretch.
Though the exam pattern is objective in the preliminary examination, the main agenda behind this first screening round itself is to test the standard of knowledge of the candidates as those who have graduated from recognized Universities, irrespective of their professional expertise.
This screening test will help separate the better candidates from the general lot, however, Preliminary Examination marks will only provide an entry to the Mains Examination only. The candidates will only get to the Interview round only on basis of the WBPSC 2021 Mains Examination marks. The marks obtained in the Preliminary Examination will not be of value to the final selection process.
Only those candidates who clear the Preliminary examination of the specific year for which he/she has applied will appear for the WBPSC 2021 Mains Exam for that specific year. There is no carry forward rule applicable here.
After successfully clearing the Prelims, the candidates get a chance to attempt the WBPSC 2021 Mains Examination. Unlike the Preliminary round, the Mains Examination has six sets of papers which are mandatory, and an optional subject that shall have two assessment papers. So it counts to 8 papers in total, which the Mains Examination qualified candidates have to appear for.
The optional subject which shall have two papers is only for those candidates who have opted either for Group ‘A’ or Group “B” posts/ services and also for those candidates who have applied for posts in both the groups.
There is a stipulated list of optional subjects given in the official notification of the Public service Commission, West Bengal. The candidate can himself crawl through the list and choose his choice of optional subject in which he wants to give the examination.
| S.No. | PAPER HEADS | PATTERN | MARKS | TIME |
| 1. | Arithmetic and Test of Reasoning. |
“The questions for all these 4 papers shall be Objective MCQ Pattern.” |
‘’ 200 Marks for each paper”
|
“3 hours”
|
| 2. | Indian Constitution and Indian Economy including role and functions of the Reserve Bank of India. | |||
| 3. | General Studies-I | |||
| 4. | General Studies-II | |||
| 5 | General English |
“Subjective Questions.” |
||
| 6. | Santali/Nepali/Urdu/Hindi/ Bengali |
The expected standard of questions asked in the compulsory papers OF WBPSC Exam is that of a graduate in any discipline and that of optional subject papers, the n standard would be kept of an Honours degree graduate.
Those candidates who qualify for the Mains examination shall in the order of their merit be called for the WBPSC 2021 personality test. This shall be for all the Groups i.e. ‘A’, ‘B’,’ C’,’ D’. The questioning pattern would be simply based on general matters. As the name suggests, the idea underneath the Personality Test round is to assess the personality of the candidates and to know the candidates’ areas of interest.
Those candidates whose candidature is for the post listed in Group ‘B’ shall be tested on the skills required for that particular service.
The marks allocation for the interview round is different for all the groups.
| Marks Allocation for Interview Round | |
| Groups | Marks weightage |
| 1. Grp ‘A’ | 200 |
| 2. Grp ‘B’ | 200 |
| 3. Grp ‘C’ | 150 |
| 4. Grp ‘D’ | 100 |
Note: The candidates will not be having a consecutive interview for the multiple posts applied under different groups. There will be only a single interview round in which the candidate shall be tested for all the services he has applied for and accordingly the marks will be awarded.
Since the unwarranted pandemic waves the examination kept on postponing and it has now been notified on the official website of the Public Service Commission that the date of downloading the exam for the WBPSC 2021 (Exe.) Preliminary Exam and WBPSC (Exe.) Mains Examination 2020 shall be as detailed below.
| EXAM NAME | DATE FOR ADMIT CARD |
| WBPSC 2021 (Exe.)Preliminary Exam | 06th Aug 2021 |
| WBPSC (Exe.) Mains 2020 Exam | 16th Aug 2021 |
Prior to the WBPSC 2021 Exam result, the answer key of the examination is put out on the official website of the Commission for reference by the candidates within the duration of few days after the examination. The candidates are free to download the answer key are have a quick comparison to assess the answers marked by them and the actual correct answers. And accordingly, the candidates can have a beforehand assessment of their answers and calculate their possible tentative score.
However, the final results declared officially by the commission shall hold valid for the further selection procedure.
After the answer key is published, within a short duration itself the results of the WBPSC 2021 Exam are also announced on the official website of the Commission. The merit list containing the names of the selected candidates will be published. The candidates shall keep a regular check and access the official website of the West Bengal Public Service Commission for updates on the exams and results.
The candidates shall download a copy for themselves for future references.
Interested candidates can apply online. The applications are received only in online mode. However, the fees are accepted in offline mode as well. The candidates should keep a check on the WBPSC Exam portal for application deadline dates. However, most of the time the pre-notified date of lapse of time for filling notification gets extended.
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Q1: Is the WBPSC 2021 application form available offline?
A1: No, the application form can be filled online only though the payment can be done online and offline.
Q2: Is the final revised date of the WBPSC 2021 examination notified?
A2: Yes, the newly revised date of WBCS (Exe.) Preliminary Exam 2021 is on 22nd Aug 2021 and the WBCS (Exe.) Mains Exam 2020 are 27th, 28th, 29th, 31st Aug 2021.
Q3: How about the negative marking system in the WBPSC Prelims and Mains exam?
A3: Certainly there is negative marking for wrong answers in MCQ questions but the actual scheme of the negative marking is not stated in the official notification.
Q4: Has the vacancy list for WBPSC 2021 been notified?
No, the vacancy list is still not published, but it will be published in due course of time.
Q5. What is the language stipulation to write the exam?
A5: All the answers can be written in any of the two- English /Bengali language only except language papers. The candidates must strictly adhere to one language whichever they have chosen for answering the entire question paper.
Q6: Is WBPSC 2021 Exam Computer Based Test (CBT)?
A6: No, the WBCS 2021 exam is an offline mode test, thereby Prelims & Mains would be offline.
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